New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-23

|
This the companion who lay by her sac
under the ragged quilts life still refusing to give
place to death. though every paroxysm OF coughing
shortened the conflict
ashes that patient that the saints tbemselves-
all glory to their blessed names,-couidnt DO moro
! so; but I'd not know how to manage II IL WASH
for the foot warmer call her; that's Angela there'
wild eyes that'go through you an the iiIe oea.eh
out Of her by the man that called himself her
father an wasn't at all, at ALL lts she tna' uooS
the katinc of the house. an sleeps across the foot,
an itr mine they think the two av 'em. else they
never a let me in. the rules bein, no dodgers.
| It's not dodgers they are. It's me boarders. full
fedged. an whose better right than me, though
I I'd not be sayn' so to the hOusekeeper thatd need
forty pair O. eyes to her two to see what's gcn on
! under her nose"
! The foot warmers Office had ceased for one Of
them before the month erded, and when the Pottcrs
| Field had received the pine coffin followed only by
| the two watchers. the widow made haste to bring
| in another candidate for the same position; ono
| upon whom she had kept her eye for month
| certain that worse trouble was on the way than
| loss Of work.
"There was the look on her shat names but the
| one thing" she said afterward. "There's thin
that stbaud every thing an niver word. an there's
/ thin that turns DESPERATE. She was desperate
! wan"
| Never had DESPERATE wan" better reason. A
factory Girl almost from babyhood her apprentice
ship having begun at seven she had left the mill at
fourteen tall girl older than her years In look
| and experience New-York was her Mecca and to
| New-York she came. with weeks wages In her
pocket which to live till work should be found,
and. neither relative friend save girl who
had preceded her by few months and was now ut
work IN a fringe and gimp factory earning ~
main tina M IN n A
few weeks training But seven years in cotton
mill II they had given quickness in direction.
had blunted all power IN others The fingers were
unskilful and clumsy and her mind too wandering
administrative to master details and the place was
quickly lost. She entered her name as candidate
for the first vacancy in a Grsnd-st store. and.
in the meantime. went into a coffee and spice mill
and became corfee-picker at $3 week. This
lasted q month or two, but tven here there was
dissatisfaction with lack of thoroughness and she
was presently discharged. The vacancy had come,
and she went at once into the store. her delicate
face and pretty eyes commencing her to the
manager who lost no time in telling her what
impression she could produce if she were better
dressed. Weak. Irresponsible hopelessly careless
aud past any power to undo these conditions, there
was some instinct in the nntaught life that put her
instantly on the defensive
aim not good for much she said, but I'm too
good for that. There's nothing you could promise
would get you your will and there won't be-
Naturally as the siege declared itself hopeless
one the manager found it necessary to NIL her place
by some more competent hand. There vas an
interval of waiting in which she pawnod almost the
last article of clothing remaining that could be
dispensed with, and then went into a bakery,
whore the hours were from II a. m. to 10 p. IN,
sometimes later. She was awkward at making
change, but her gentle manners attracted custom
ers and the baker himself soon cast favorable
eye upon her. and speedily made the same PROPOSE
ton that had driven her from her last employment
The bakers wife know the symptoms and on the
same day discharged the girl
~ don't say it's your fault" she said, "but he's
started about You. and it's for your own good
tell you to CO. The best thing for is to so back
to your mother, or else take a place with some
nice woman thatl keep an eye 10 you You'll
always be run after. know your kind, that no
man looks at without wanting to fool with en-
You take my advice and 60 into place."
The chance came that night The mistress Of
cheap boarding house in. East Broadway. her
patrons CHIEFLY young clerks from Grand and
Division st. stores, offered her homo and Ss a
month, and Lizzie, who by this tine was fright
eIed and discouraged. accepted on the instant
She was we'll accustomed to long hours and abe
had never minded standing &c many Of the girls
did her apprentceship in the mill having made it
comparatively easy.
But the drudgery undergone here was beyond
anything her life had ever known. Her day began
at and it never ended before IL. She slept on an
old mattress on the kitchen floor and as her
strength failed from the incessant labor lost all
power of protest and accepted each new demand us
something against which there could be no revolt.
There abundance OF coarse food and thus
much advantage, but she had no knowledge that
taught her how TO make work easier, nor had her
mistress any thought OF training her She wasa
dish washing machine CHIEFLY, and broke and
Clipped the rough ware that formed the
table furniture, till the exasperated mistress
threatened to turn her of If another piece were
destroyed. 1t was a case Of hopeless inaDtitude
and when in early spring she sckened, and the
physician called In grudgngly declared it case OF
had lived she sent at once to the hospital and
left to such fate as might come.
clean bed, rest and attendance seemed a
heaven to the girl when CONSEQUENCES came back,
and she shrank from any thought OF going out
again to make fight for existence.
q don't know what the matter is" che said to
to make a living shall have to go. back to the
mill. but said I never would do that"
You shall 80 TO some training school and DO
her speculatiyely yet pitifully.
"Ah, but L couldn't learn. Somehow things
don's stick to me. I'm not fit to earn a living"
you're of the same stuff as q good many
thousand of your kind" the doctor said under his
breath, and turned away with q SIGH
Lizzie went out convaescent but still weak and
uncertain and took refuge with one Of the bakery
girls who had hair OF dark bedroom in a tenement
house near the Big Flat" She looked for work
Sho answered advertisements, and at last began
upon the simplest form of necktie. and IN her
slow. bungllng fashion began TO earn again. But
she had no strength. She sat at the window and
looked over to the Big Flat and watched the swarm
that came and went. Five hundred people In IT,
thew told her, ana half of them drunk at once. Ii
was certain that there were always men lying
drunk In the Railways in the midst.of ashes and
filth that accumulated there almost unchecked
The saloon below always full; the stale beer
dives all along the street full also, above all at
night when the Haunting street walkers came out,
and hddles squeaked. and cheap pianos ratified, and
songs and shouts were oyertopped at moments by
the shreks of beaten women or tbs oaths ana cries
of sudden fight. Slowly ii was coming to the
girl that this was oil tho life NewYork had for her
That Ii she failed 20 meet tho demand employer
after employer had made upon her, she would die
in thia hoa where neither no bad